Not Applicable
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
1. Description of Related Art
A conventional female terminal that is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-35813 is equipped with a bottom wall, a pair of side walls that have been substantially vertically bent from the bottom wall 2, and upper walls that have been bent from upper ends of the side walls so as to become parallel with the bottom wall. A part of the upper wall is bent to form an elastic contact portion while a part of the bottom wall is bent to form an elastic receiving surface portion opposing the elastic contact portion. An engaging/retaining protruding portion is formed on the elastic receiving surface portion, on a free-end side of that there is formed a stopper by bending it. At a position upper than the stopper there is provided an operation portion that protrudes more upwardly than the upper wall.
When a male terminal is inserted into between the elastic contact portion and the elastic receiving surf ace portion, the elastic contact portion is elastically deformed upward. As a result of this, the insertion of the male terminal is permitted. When the position of the engaging/retaining hole of the male terminal reaches the position of the engaging/retaining protruding portion by insertion, the engaging/retaining portion is engaged with and retained by the engaging/retaining hole of the male terminal by the elasticity of the elastic contact portion, etc. Also, when the male terminal is further inserted from this state, the forward end surface of the male terminal abuts on the stopper. This keeps the male terminal from its excessive insertion.
When in a state where the male terminal and the female terminal are mounted together an external force has acted upon the male terminal in a direction drawing it off from the female terminal, the draw-off of the male terminal does not occur and the mounted state is maintained as is. This is because the engaging/retaining protruding portion of the female terminal is kept in engagement and retention with the engaging/ retaining hole of the male terminal.
Also, when unlocking the male terminal from the female terminal, the operation portion of the female terminal is depressed downward. As a result of this, the elastic receiving surf ace portion is downwardly elastically deformed, with the result that the engaging/retaining protruding portion is unlocked from the engaging/retaining hole of the male terminal. If, in this unlocked condition, the male terminal is drawn off from the female terminal, the male terminal gets easily disengaged from the female terminal.
2. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a terminal structure having an engagement/retention portion that is engaged with and retained by an engagement/retention portion to be engaged and retained of a mating terminal to be inserted.
However, in the above-described terminal, when the forward end surface of the male terminal is in contact with the stopper, it is not possible to easily perform the drawing-off operation of the male terminal. The reason for this is as follows. Because the male terminal is in abutment with the stopper, the stopper is hard to displace downward. For this reason, the elastic receiving surface portion is not sufficiently elastically deformed downward and so the engaging/retaining protruding portion is not unlocked from the engaging/retaining hole of the male terminal.
Thereupon, an object of the present invention is to provide a terminal that can prevent excessive insertion of a mating terminal by the stopper and in that the stopper does not become an obstacle to performing the drawing-off operation of a mating terminal.
To attain the above object, a terminal according to the present invention has a bottom wall, a pair of side walls, an upper wall, an elastic contact portion that is freely elastically deformable in a direction substantially vertical with respect to the bottom wall, an elastic receiving surf ace portion that opposes the elastic contact portion, an engaging/retaining portion on the bottom wall that is freely displaceable by its elastic deformation made in a direction substantially vertical with respect to the bottom wall, and a stopper. The side walls respectively rise from both ends of the bottom wall. The upper wall extends from at least one of the side walls to over the bottom wall and opposes the bottom wall. The elastic contact portion is provided on one of the bottom wall and the upper wall while the elastic receiving surface portion is provided on the other of them. The engaging/retaining portion is engaged with a mating terminal that is inserted between the elastic contact portion and the elastic receiving surface portion. The stopper is bent from the upper wall to thereby contact with the mating terminal and thereby prevent excessive insertion of the same.
According to the construction, when the mating terminal is inserted into between the elastic contact portion and the elastic receiving surface portion, the engaging/retaining portion is engaged with and retained by an engagement/retention portion to be engaged and retained of the mating terminal. When attempting to insert the mating terminal excessively, the mating terminal abuts on the stopper.
In a case where drawing off the mating terminal from the terminal, the method therefor is to disengage the engaging/retaining portion from the engagement/retention portion to be engaged and retained by some means or another. At this time, it is not necessary to displace the stopper.
In this way, it is possible to prevent excessive insertion of the mating terminal by the stopper and in addition the stopper does not become an obstacle to performing the drawing-off operation of the mating terminal. Accordingly, even when the forward end surface of the mating terminal is kept in abutment with the stopper, it is possible to draw off the mating terminal reliably.
The width of the stopper may be larger than the thickness thereof and the width direction of the stopper may be substantially the same as the direction in which the mating terminal is inserted.
According to the construction, the forward end surface of the male terminal abuts on the end surface of the stopper. And in addition the stopper receives the pressing force exerted from the mating terminal by its thickness as viewed in the direction of its width whose dimension is larger than that of the thickness of the stopper as otherwise viewed. Therefore, the stopper is not easily displaced with respect to the pressing force exerted from the male terminal. Accordingly, even when the stopper receives a strong inserting force, the stopper reliably can prevent the excessive insertion of the male terminal. Also, even when the stopper receives a strong inserting force, the stopper is kept away from being deformed, etc.
The stopper may be extended obliquely toward the bottom wall.
According to the construction, the area of contact between the stopper and the male terminal becomes large. As a result of this, the pressing force per unit area that the member on each side receives becomes small and this can prevent the deformation, etc. of each member.